Foreigners asked the Russian gold mines

The canadian company Kinross Gold has proposed to the Russian government to reduce restrictions on the participation of foreign companies in large projects for the extraction of gold, reports “Kommersant”.

At the meeting of the Consultative Council on foreign investments (FIAC) with a proposal to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev asked the head of Kinross Gold Paul Rollinson. According to his calculations, if you raise the threshold of reserves to deposits of Federal significance from 50 to 200 tons, will be able to attract $ 1.2 billion of foreign direct investment. Direct and indirect contributions to GDP will total to 136 billion dollars, will be created 61 thousand jobs.

According to the law “On subsoil” foreigners may not participate in the development of subsoil of Federal significance without the approval of the governmental Commission on nonvertical. For ten years the government has never restricted transactions in gold mining, but according to Kinross Gold, “the very existence of the restriction” slows the license and is perceived as a “significant risk”.

As stated in the study, handed over to Medvedev, in the years 2014-2016 in Russia foreign direct investment in mining accounted for only 1 percent of all foreign investment. There were only 12 transactions. While in Canada, it was about 13 percent and 367 transactions, respectively.

In July, Russia has purchased 26.1 tonnes of gold, which at the time was the highest volume for the year. As a result, the volume of gold reserves increased to 2170 tons. According to first Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Dmitry Tulin, the gold reserves are increasing because it is a hundred percent protected from legal and political risks.